The records of service for the Royal Navy and Marines for the period of the Great War are more or less complete. Below are listed the records that are available and what one can expect to find in them.

Officers - These records show date and place of birth, generally fathers name. Full service is listed up till discharge, which in many cased means Second World War service and later. For some there is a second series of records which are confidential reports of the officers. All records show postings, ships, promotions, awards.

Ratings - Date and place of birth are show along with trade on joining. Records show all postings, ships, promotions, character and casualty details. Service is shown up till 1927. The menthod of keeping records from this date changed to card form. These later records are still held by the Admiralty.

Officers - These have not yet been released for the rank of Sub-Lieutenant etc. However if you are looking for a Skipper of the RNR these are available and take the same format as Ratings records.

Ratings - Records are in card form. Show date and place of Birth, trade, next of kin details. They also show full postings and ships on which they served, character and casualty details. There may be more than one record to copy. A man would sign on for the Reserve for a period of five years. If after this period of engagement he wished to sign for a further term he would be assigned a new number, and a new card would be made out to continue his service details on.

Officers - Records show date of birth, postings and ships on which the officer served.

Ratings - These show date and place of birth, trade on joining, postings and ships served, character and casualty details.

The Royal Naval Division was formed from members of the Royal Navy, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Royal Naval Reserve, Royal Fleet Reserve and Royal Marines Light Infantry. Many of the members from the RNVR and RMLI had originally volunteered for Kitchener's New Army, but were transferred in September 1914. The 63rd (Royal Naval) Division saw service in Gallipoli and later France and Flanders fighting alongside army Divisions in the Front Line.

The records for both Officers and Other Ranks take the same format. These records are very detailed and are complete apart from many of the RMLI men. For RMLI men see ROYAL MARINES below. One can usually expect to find Date and place of Birth, Home address, Next of Kin's name and address, occupation, religion etc. The actual service history is listed in detail for both home and overseas service. This includes promotions, battalion or unit postings and details of wounds. If Killed in Action often the original map reference and place of burial is shown.

If an Officer or Man of the RNAS served after 1st April 1918 on the formation of the Royal Air Force there is likely be a second record of service. Please also see Royal Air Force Records

Officers - These records generally show Date of Birth, Unit or Squadron together with the dates of service with with them. They also usually contain confidential reports on the Officers.

Other Ranks - These records are the same format as Royal Navy Ratings records.

Officers - These records can be vey detailed. Date and place of Birth, Fathers name and Profession, Wife's name, date of death. Appointments and promotions, medals awarded. Full details of ships served or where serving are shown together with comments on their abilities or weaknesses. Also included are records of War Service which list specific actions in which they were involved as well as details of Special Reports of service where especially commended. The records continue until final discharge and in some cases run through to circa 1950.

Ratings - These records show date and place of Birth, occupation on joining, Next of Kin details and address. Promations are shown along with charcter, postings, medals awarded and wounds. If a man served with the Royal Naval Division or for example in France with the Royal Marine Artillery there is often also a casualty form which shows more details of sickness, postings or wounds. Often the date of death is also shown. Again, as with Officer records service until final discharge is show so any Second World War service is also shown.

All awards granted to the RN, RNR, RNVR, RND, RNAS and RM's were announced in the London Gazette. Often no details giving the reason for the award was published. For Naval awards Admiralty correspondence can hold wealth of information regarding awards granted down to Mention's in Despatches.

For men in the Royal Naval Division awards such as the Military Cross or Distinguished Conduct Medals generally the full citation can be traced along with the date/s of the action for which the award was granted. With RND units, as with the Army War Diaries exits and further information relating to the action can be obtained. For awards of the Militay Medal made to members of the RND no citation is generally available although some details can sometimes be gained from a search of the units War Diary. In the case of awards to the RNAS most recommendations for awards have survived down to Mentions in Despatches and Foreign Awards.